Comments on: Efficient Outdoor Water Use

By: hose adapters

hose adapters — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:18:52 +0000

Interesting post! I am currently looking for a hose nozzle for watering my garden. Glad I saw this post. I’ve got an idea. Keep posting!

-seff-

By: Painting Overspray

Painting Overspray — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:00:36 +0000

Water conversation is really necessary nowadays. Because of the climate change now anybody needs to save our natural resources.

By: Grant

Grant — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:37:17 +0000

- Water in the early morning, as evening watering will promote fungus and mould growth.
- Cut lawn in the evening, to protect the newly cut wounds from being sun scorched.
- Reel mowers make a cleaner cut on the grass, reducing disease, and doesn’t cause strain on the grass roots (unlike the suction produced by other types of mowers).
- Keep the lawn at least 3″, to increase moisture retention in the soil, and reduces weed growth through shading.
- Sew fescue grass, which is slow growing, and drought resistant ( less mowing and watering).
- Adding White Dutch Clover to the lawn will enhance nitrogen sequestration in the soil. Thus, less fertilizer needed.

By: David

David — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:28:26 +0000

Much good advice. But do the math on rain barrels, and they turn out to be vastly more expensive than using your home water supply——so much so that for most, they will never pay for themselves. They are too small and sellers keep prices very high.

It is a shame we no longer build houses with cisterns.

By: J Burton

J Burton — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:04:30 +0000

This summer we set up four rain barrels on our house. We found a supplier that had 55 gallon plastic barrels which were originally used for shipping olives from Greece to the US. I added quarter stop faucets and the base and a sealed 3/4 inlet at the top. From Amazon.com I ordered Rain Reserve diverters for my gutters. Because of the design of my system, it is closed to mosquitoes (which makes a big difference in the south east). In the front yard I am using a watering can and a soaker hose to water my trees and shrubs. In the back yard I have rigged some 3/4 pvc pipe for irrigating my garden (gravity fed). All in all, the rain barrels with diverters and cinder blocks I used to elevate them cost me about $50 each. While not cheap, I read that just in the summer one rain barrel will save $35 – 40 if used during the dry spells. My hope would be to repay the investment in 2 years maximum. Also in my city, due to a drought in 2006 and 2007, the city restricted all exterior watering from the city water supply. I now have a great backup plan to keep my garden and 12 fruit trees alive.